To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures who people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. It is like losing--I'm sorry, I would rather not go on.

To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity.

Socially inferior animals are the ones that make the most strenuous, resourceful efforts to get to know their keepers. They prove to be the ones most faithful to them…it is a fact commonly known in the trade.

In art, something comes of nothing. Out of the thin air and the ether, you create a story. And that is intensely satisfying.

The idea of a flip book still really appeals to me. That idea of fiction and non-fiction.

I go to mass every Sunday, but love going to mosques too. Muslims pray in a beautiful way.

My greatest wish - other than salvation - was to have a book.